Winter 1994

Number 48

Bulletin of the
Culture and
Culture and Agriculture Agriculture Group

A Few Words About This Issue.

In This Issue
Every once in awhile there appears a piece of work that is so expressive and
provocative that it must be shared. It demands to be shared. This is the case Re-embedding Food in Agriculture
with Gustavo Esteva's "Re-embedding Food in Agriculture." It was delivered
as a keynote address to the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society and by Gustavo Esteva p.2
the Association for the Study ofFood and Society during their joint meeting at
Pennsylvania State University this past June. It was (and is) a spellbinding and
Multipurpose Research and the Multipur-
powerful presentation. We feel fortunate to have been given permission to
pose Research Team: The Philippine
publish it in C&4.
Good Roots-Ugat ng buhay Project
Esteva, using words like other artists use color, helps us to glimpse the
concept of comida. He gives voice not only to the quality of living, of being, by Ben J. Wallace p.13
of surviving that comida represents, but also, and possibly more importantly,
to the distress its absence fashions in our economically measured and managed Ecology, Community Organization and
lives. Com/rfa signifies a richness of human experience, afreedom empowered Gender (ECOGEN) Project Overview
by diversity and the absence of scarcity. It is a concept without edges and
without internal divisions. It is an embodiment of agriculture, place and by Barbara Thomas-Slayter
community. Our challenge, as Esteva presents it, is to visualize, enable, and and Dianne Rocheleau p. 19
celebrate comida in all its limitless variety.
Announcements p. 24
In keeping with this holism, Ben Wallace writes about the practical benefits,
methodological insights, and cost effectiveness of conducting real interdisci-
plinary research in the northern Philippines. As he describes it, "In (project)
Good Roots a multipurpose research team follows a multipurpose methodology
to bring about multipurpose research and development." The intensity of the
involvement, he feels, is more than compensated for by the cooperative spirit
and the ultimate empowerment of all project participants.
Finally, the article by Barbara Thomas-Slayter and Dianne Rocheleau
provides valuable resources for teaching and research on gender and natural
resource management issues. The authors provide a description of Ecology,
Community Organization and Gender (ECOGEN), a project that uses the case
study method to identify the institutional structures and processes which affect
the inclusion of gender as a variable in research and project implementation.
Descriptions of the case studies are included.

Daniela Soleri, from Food from Dry/and Gardens

 Re-embedding Food in Agriculture
by Gustavo Esteva
Mexican Grassroots Activist and Journalist

I don'tknowhowto say what I want to redefining what a good life is in local, effective only if it is articulated in a
say. It is somethingradicallynew. It has rooted terms. Hopefully, wewillnothave unifyingdiscourse—one capableofshap-
been said time and again for centuries. I a universal, unique truth nor global cer- ing the coalition of all the dispersed and
am not trying to justify pouring old wine tainties, of the kind now promoted by diverse struggles, each of them located in
into new bottles, but instead to illustrate globalists, 'think globally, act locally,' a different head of the modern Hydra.
my perplexity and the very nature of the the conventional or alternative managers This is how I come to define my
predicament I want to discuss here. ofthe development discourse; a thousand puzzlement. Because they are radically
We need to articulate in a convincing different truths, different perceptions of postmodern struggles and experiences,
discourse a wide variety of initiatives we cannot express them inmodem terms,
now being experimented with by people because we do not yet have the terms or
at the grassroots, all over the world. the words ofthe newera. How to bury the
Well-rooted in tradition and local cul- After modernity pestilent corpse ofmoderntimesifwe are
ture, peasants, urban 'marginals,' and we may have the notyetable to see and touch and smell the
other social majorities are apparently flourishing of a postmodern ones? Wecanlearnfromour
departing from modern thinking and ancestors, when confronted with similar
thousand different
behavior. They are not attempting to go circumstances. But weremainunable to
back to any lost paradise, nor are they lifestyles, redefining bringfromthepast the words thatwenow
falling into nostalgia or revivalism. In what a good life is need to say what we want to say.
fact, they are dissolving the historical in local, rooted That is why I don't know how to
break imposed by modernity. This search terms. explain myselfhere. Allow me then to do
for continuity gives them the spirit of the what I do, in my daily life, for a living: to
old wine. But they are not merely new tellyouafew stories, to bring to this room
bottles. They are coming from different a few images that perhaps may evoke in
grapes; the wine is different. These you clues or hints or premonitions, from
initiatives are so new, in fact, that we the world, different cosmic visions con- your own experience, around which we
have no words to express them in an ceived at the local level, will emerge from can construct a kind of dialogical dia-
articulate manner. Our formal categories the ruins left by modernity. logue, inspired in the radical pluralism to
are irrelevant or useless. Evenour simple But the differentiated responses we whichweare constantly invited by Raimon
words, doors of our perception, are not are now observing are reactions to a Panikkar.
accurate. That is my predicament. common enemy—shaping the struggle
In a sense, what I am trying to do is itself and its basic thrust. Grasping the What I Don't Want To Do
impossible. These experiences are so commonality of those diverse experi-
well-rooted in local spaces and cultures ences in a single discourse thus seems Before beginning, however, allow me
that any attempt to reduce them to a possible. to tell you what I don't want to do here.
single global discourse isboth impossible Inventing that discourse seems urgent That I know very well.
and preposterous. But they have in com- and badly needed because all these thou- I don't want to tell you another horror
mon their radical post-modernity, which sands of local struggles will be able to story about the implications of the Green
is not only something that comes after challenge the gigantic forces and institu- Revolution. That story is by now so well
modernity, but something that happens tions created by modernity only if they documented, so extensively examined
against modernity; they are reacting to a succeed injoiningforces against the shared and described, that one needs to be blind
social condition that has reached a world enemy. Their discourses are emerging or very rich, very stubborn or very im-
scale. from the social majorities of the world; moral, to ignore thedestructive impact of
^/ermodernitywemayhavetheflour- that is one of the main sources of their that monstrous experiment. Since the
ishing of a thousand different lifestyles, strength. This strength, however, will be pioneering research of Andrew Pearse
and the United Nations Research Insti- ronments, to waste away our natural and end of this century. I cannot support or
tute for Social Development in the early social inheritance, to produce decay and celebrate such events—no matter how
1970s, thousands of pages have been rot. I don't want to associate myselfwith much I am horrified by the present situ-
written to describe and explain, in full such an endeavor. ation or the perspective.
detail, every and all aspects of this dark I want even less to talk about any 'back I would like to go beyond the explosion
chapter of human history. Technically to the land' campaign, neither that which ofthemythofscarcity,asproposedbyJoe
speaking, what seemed to be the culmi- is peaceful, soft, courageous, but still too Collins and Frances Moore Lappe 20
nation of millenia of agricultural knowl- embedded in the individualism of the years ago in their pioneering work Food
edge andexperience happens to bejust an 'backto the land' movement ofthe 1960s, First, criticizing the Green Revolution.
extremely ephemeral, unsustainablepro- nor the violent, authoritarian way for Their explosion focused on redistribu-
ductive regime, transmogrifying agri- dismantling the cities, promoted by Pol tion. In the tradition of Amartya Sen,
culture into agro-business and destroy- Pot or Abigail Guzman. they talked about 'rights of access' and
ing both nature and culture. I cannot be described rigorously how we are now
of any help for those who refuse to see I am back in the land of my ancestors. producing more than enough food to
these facts, now well documented. Like many thousands of Mexicans, I adequately feed every inhabitant on earth.
abandoned the beautiful city in which I Sen documented how, during every great
Neither do I want to join the forces of was born, a city of a million inhabitants.
Naderism and participate in the world It is now the most polluted human settle- famine of this century, food exports con-
campaign for healthy food, natural prod- ment on earth, where 16 million pile on tinued and that the people were dying of
ucts, organic coffee or holistic diets. I am top of each other and thrive on the de- hunger when the tables of the industrial-
affronted by those who have transformed struction of the whole central region of ized world were full offood comingfirom
a legitimate claim of millions of people Mexico, depriving it of water, food and their lands and countries. They offer a
against the junk now delivered to their landscape in the most unsustainable way. good argument against the irrationality
tables, into the last, fashionable extreme I am living in a small town, in the south or immorality of our food system. But
ofpalate industrialization. 'Health food' ofMexico, where I am learning to use my instead of going 'beyond the myth of
has become another turn of the screw of hands, a few kilometers away from the scarcity' as they pretended, they were
economic society. The struggle against place where my Zapotec grandmother rooting even more the principle of scar-
obscene corporations has been was born. city, by suggesting better ways for orga-
refunctionalized and transformed into nizing the production and distribution of
another contortion of the system. The However, unless God'sbulldozerpays the modern commodity called 'food.'
otherwise admirable struggle to protect a visit to Mexico City more boisterous
than the one it paid in 1985, or another I don't want to talk here about the
consumers has rooted even more deeply
Pol Pot seizes power in my country, I Green Revolution, healthy or good con-
the very idea of consumerism.
cannot imagine the quick dismantling of sumerism, back to the land movements,
There is nothing like good consumer- our cities where, the experts say, 80 or food aid and redistribution. ButI don't
ism. Consum-ere, the Latin root for percent of the population will live by the know how to say what I want to say.
consuming, meansto take up completely,
make away with, devour, waste, destroy,
spend. The first meaning mentioned in
the Oxford English Dictionary for 'con-
sume' is "to make away with, use up
destructively. Said chiefly of fire: To
burn up, reduce to invisible products, or
to ashes; also ofany similar destructive or
'devouring' agent" 'Consume' is also
"to destroy (a living being, or more
usually a race or a tribe) by disease or any
wasting process;" "to decompose;" "to
spend wastefulfy;" "to waste one's sub-
stance, ruin oneself;" "to swallow up in
destruction;" "to wear out of use;" "to
exhaust right ofaction;""to waste away,
decay, rot, perish." All those historical
meanings of the active verb 'consume'
are now condensed in our daily practices
of consumption. Naderism simply ex-
tends and legitimates our impulses to
destroy, to ruin ourselves and our envi- Laura B. DeLind
Beyond Reminiscenses signed from their urban careers and re- our way of life has been essentially
turned to the town. communitarian, solidarian, with a pro-
Afewweeksago, preparing myselffor For many years, in constant struggle found respect for the land, our mother,
this talk, I was revisiting in my mind one with the education authorities, the school which protects and nourishes us; that is
of the most beautiful towns I have ever departedfromthe official curriculum and whyourheartsufferswhen we see how it
known. It is San Andres Chicahuaxtla, in concentrated on forms of apprenticeship is damaged, destroyed by greed and
the northern mountainsofOaxaca. There for locally needed skills, such as in agri- ambition when it is denied to their ances-
is fog most ofthe day, most of the year, in culture, carpentry, craftmanshipand other tralowners, when its natural equilibrium
this town, because they live literally in the areas. One ofthe sons ofDon Marcos was is broken with so many industrial prod-
clouds. It iscold there. They are Indians, responsible for this venture. ucts.
ofthe Driqui nation. All the women wear We have been observed with the eyes
magnificent huipiles, with horizontal No doctor appeared in the health cen- of Western perception, in its different
rows of red and white in creative, very ter, thus protecting the town from the forms, butwe have not been understood;
personal designs, conceived and woven usual medical interventiondisabling their it is still imposed on us the Western form
by each ofthem. They have magnificent healing capacities. The very modern ofdevelopment, its civilization, itswayof
stories. They love to tell ofthe time when building of the center became a guest seeing the world and relating to nature,
a terrible pest of enormous grasshoppers house. When another son ofDon Marcos thus denying all the knowledge gener-
devastated whole areas of Oaxaca and finished his studies as a doctor, he suc- ated by our different peoples. We have
came to San Andres. The pest ended ceeded in gettingthecommissionto work domesticated the corn, that sacred plant
there. They eat grasshoppers in a thou- in it. But herespectedthe area for guests which gave us existence and we continue
sand forms and are experts in capturing as well as local traditions, thinking that improving it. But even so, whenever an
them. The kids, particularly, know how no 'hospital beds' were needed. He agronomist comes to our towns, he tells
to skillfully play the hat in the grass to transformed the operating room, for ex- us that the corn numbered and produced
capture them. An expert will complai- ample, to facilitate women's giving birth in his research center is better;ifwe build
sanuy agree that the grasshoppers are in the traditional squatting position. He a house with our knowledge and materi-
rich in protein, but anyway they are very asked other women to be there, helping als, an architect comes to tell us that a
tasty. When the pest of grasshoppers those in labor, while he was nearby, to be dignified house can only be built with
came to San Andres, the Driquis ate them called when needed. Rarely was he industrialized products; if we invoke our
all. They now have a prayer begging for called, but he in fact became famous in old gods, someone comes to tell us that
the pest to come back. the region for his success in assisting ourfaith is superstitious.
births.
During my visit, we were recalling
I was remembering when I first met
Marcos, the third son, was selected to these and other stories, when thetimefor
Dona Refugio, the mother of a friend of
givethe main speech to the kingsof Spain the meal came. We entered the warm
mine who invited me to visit him. Her
when they came to Oaxaca. Full of domain of Dona Refugio, the mother,
husband, Don Marcos, was the leader of
respect and hospitality, he welcomed them where she squatted on the floor at the
the town for many years, since the 1940s.
to this old land, center ofthe room, attendingher cooking
He first brought peace to it, wisely con-
ciliating with its neighbors all conflicts where we conserve, we live together place. We sat there, chatting withher and
about limits and leading the yearly march and we resist, in our own ways of life, her sons, for more than two hours. She
during which the whole town dances, those created by thewisdom of our ances- gave us a delicious soup of guias de
sings and celebrates, not to build walls, tors that continue recreating. We use this calabaza, one key element ofthe tradi-
but to peacefully remember and affirm occasion to tell the Western world that tional milpa. Other elements ofthe milpa
the agreements in ajoyful encounter with followed, as we sat chatting and explor-
the neighbors. ing why Dona Refugio remained in her
small, quiet town. She had refused to
When development came to Oaxaca,
move out of San Andres, except for short
the fantasies of the Driquis, like the
I don't want to visits to the neighboring town ofTlaxiaco,
fantasies of most of us 'underdeveloped'
people, were captured by the promises of talk here about the a place of 5,000 people, defined by her as
Green Revolution, a big city. Her sons insisted on giving her
development At that time, Don Marcos
a gas stove and other "conveniences" of
conducted the successful struggle to bring healthy or good
modern kitchens and houses. She re-
a road, a school, a health center, and all consumerism, back fused. She also rejected a Lorena stove.
the other development 'marvels' to his to the land move-
town. Don Marcos' four sons and his That morning, she offered us many rea-
daughterfollowed the pattern ofthetimes
ments or food aid sons to do precisely that
and took part in the ritual of 'superior and redistribution. All her reasons revealed how her whole
education.' After completing or aban- world is embedded in agri-culture. Why
doning the university, all of them re- did she not want to leave? What were her
reasons for refusing so many 'comforts'
she was offered by her sons? Some ofher
reasons seemed unusual. She said, for
example, like other women in the town,
that Lorena stoves are bad for the back,
for they force you to be on your feet to
cook. I don't know if she is right Other
women adopted the Lorena stoves pre-
cisely for the reasons rejected by her. But
if you can imagine Dofta Refugio in her
home, perhaps you can suspect why she
said that there is no reason to leave if she
has everything she wants here. And
more...
Thefireis at the center of the warmest
room of the house. And Dofia Refugio is
there, every day, at the very center, sur-
rounded by her whole family, talking
with all her sons or her husband, discuss-
ing personal difficulties or the predica-
ments of the community. That,fireand
Dona Refugio are the center of the con-
versation, and in fact the very center of
family life, and family life is the center of
thecommunity. Thewholecommunity's
life is in fact organized around such fires,
the center of kitchens, the source of
comida. The very essence of the milpa is
here, and not in the corn emerging in the
fields—the only element of the milpa
perceived by the experts, the agrono-
mists. The essence of milpa is precisely
here, around the communal fire, in the
very heart of the family.
Inrememberingthe reasons why Dona
Refugio rejected a modern stove, when I
got that glimpse of her life, I began to
enjoy again every minute of my stay in
San Andres. At the same time, a kind of
uneasiness came to my mind. Was this a
good story to bring here? Since that
experience is so present in my skin, in my
soul, lean easily share with you all thejoy
and wisdom I found there. I can describe
with precision the incredible talents of
thesepeopleandhowwise they havebeen
in handling all the challenges imposed
on them by modernity. I can go for hours
telling stories about San Andres. But in
doing so, here and now, am I running the
risk ofalienatingyou from my argument,
militating against my own cause?
Everybody knows stories of this kind.
And many of you, I am sure, love them, I can make this distinction in Spanish. comida means, except when he uses the
enjoy them, admire them, they are so rich I canfindin the reality of Dofia Refugio, word
andbeautiful and thought-provoking. Ev- as well as in all peasant groups, differen- gets.
eryone can recognize that these
people have a magnificent
lifestyle—but only magnificent
for them, out there, far away; it
is good for those Indian cul-
tures that should be protected,
kept alive, whose human rights
deserve full respect. There is
nothing in them, however, for
you, for me, for us. The telling
of such stories, then, becomes
counterproductive, portraying
my position as that ofa Utopian,
another dreamingprophet, cam-
paigning for going back in his-
tory. What seems good for
traditional societies, usually
perceived as mere reminiscence
ofthe past, seems to say nothing
to modern man and woman,
except to some fundamentalist
freaks, searching in ancient cul-
tures or religions for the spiritu-
ality they can no longer find in
their own social contexts. Is
this really pertinent for us, here
and now, in the kind of reflec-
tion you are expecting from
me?
A World Where
Scarcity Cannot
Appear
Sometimeago, I proposed to
use the word comida to differ-
entiate Dona Refugio's reality. tial behaviors that correspond to both
We must reserve the word alimento forconditions. I can document that comida,
professional or institutional use. To eat,
among many peasants, still refers to a
to care for comida, to generate it, to cook
very complex cultural relationship with
it, to eat it, to assimilate it: all these are
the earth and with the milpa, which is not
activities that belongto non-modern men
equivalent to the technical activity of
and women and are, in general, gendered
producing maize, as the milpa is usually
activities; almost the whole life of Dofia
described. I can document the differ-
Refugio in San Andres Chiahuaxtla can
ences between their attitudes and behav-
be described around those activities.
iors and the ones of a middle-class stu-
Alimentarse, in contrast, is to purchase
dent in Mexico City. He must be
and consume alimentos (edible objects),
alimentado, he consumes alimentos, and
designed by professionals or experts,
is completely dependent on the institu-
while being produced and distributed
tions that give orsell him Ihesealimentos.
through institutions.
It is difficult for him to understand what
with reference to the alimentos he
 There are other languages, such as
German, in which I can make the distinc-
tion, but the corresponding words do not
represent a differential reality ofthe same
kind. I may offer, in contrast, a lot of
examples, in the South, where the word
is enriched by others that describe cul-
tural practices connected with it.
I cannot make this distinction in En-
glish. Food is alimento, not comida.
Meal, nourishment,, and other words of
the family are referred to only as food.
Meal is a cultural word, like comida;
perhaps it originally meant comida, like
mahle in German, of the same root. But
now it seems to refer only to the time and
condition of taking food. Nourishmentis
a technical word—like nutricidn, nutri-
tion, nourriture, nahrung—which refers
to the contents of food, as defined by
professionals.
There is no English word for comida.
It is not easy to explain why and thinking
ofthat makes me feel sad Perhaps I must
recall that the Anglo-Saxon world was
the cultural space in which the industrial
mode of production was established first
and foremost. There, vernacular activi-
ties related to comida have been con-
stantly suffocated or suppressed. Those
who have recently tried to regenerate
them have confronted great difficulties.
This situation has institutionalized per-
manent scarcity of comida. I am not
referring here to overfed or underfed
minorities in the First World, nor to
malnutrition, the technical expression
that enroots the idea of a 'recommended
diet,' established by institutions, profes-
sionals or alternative sects; I am not
referring to food shortages after a bad
crop or to depleted reserves. I am talking
about a general and chronic condition of
industrialized societies, where people
must be fed and remain totally dependent
on private or public institutional appara-
tuses that create lifelong addictions to
food services, assumed as magnificent
conquests ofcivilization. Capacities and
needs are delinked worlds. Capacities
are considered equivalenttobuyuig power,
and needs are sunk in the myths of'pref-
erencecurves' or 'consumer sovereignty.'
The resulting homogenization is con-
stantly masked with the illusion of differ-
ential consumption, to fool the hunger of
"Disgusting," he said; "too wet" His
reaction belongs in fact to the same cat-
egory ofevents compelling many Ameri-
cans to go to McDonalds in Moscow,
How is it that Peking, or Mexico City: they are eating
'food' may travel their food, what they know, what their
2000 miles or palates recognize. They do the same, by
20,000 miles but the way, when eating 'cultural' or 'eth-
comida never nic'food, Chinesefood, Thaifood, Mexi-
can food, whatever food ofthe world..in
moves out of the America. They usually reject that same
very place it was food in the corresponding countries, for
born? very legitimate reasons. But for Ameri-
cans and other 'industrial eaters, the
abundance, richness, and diversity of
ethnic and other foods hide the simple
fact that they are eating only American
food, the same standard food—frozen,
industrialized, 'chemicalized' food. This
real differentiating autonomy that can illusion of both abundance and diversity
make real, not mythical or ideological, prevents any possibility of perceiving or
freedom of choice. The worst, perhaps, feeling the lack of comida. To have
is that this world inhibits the people to grasshoppers in the Mexican restaurant
perceive the absolute lack of comida and of State College is like inviting a penguin
the chronic scarcity of food. They eat to this room. It will be so rare, so out of
daily the illusion ofabundance. For their context, that it will surely inspire curios-
common perception, hunger—the abso- ity, interest, even affection. But we can-
lute lack of food—can appear in back- not live with it. This is not its place. How
ward countries, such as Ethiopia; in can we recover thevery notion that comida
America, as President Reagan used to cannot be displaced? Howcanweseethat
say, only ignorants can suffer hunger. you cannot reproduce or imitate thefireof
Some people here have identified hunger Dofia Refugio? How is it that 'food' may
in many Americans (20 million or more, travel 2000 miles or 20,000 miles but
they say) and associate it with many comida never moves out ofthe very place
things, except ignorance. But my ques- it was born? To eat 'Thai' food here, in
tion goes beyond both these opposed the best restaurants of America, assum-
interpretations ofscarcity, which ask the ing that it is Thai comida, is like being the
market or the state for the proper alloca- proud owner ofthe hole in a magnificent
tion of food resources. My question gothic window...
alludes to the very fact that nobody here
If comida is something like food-in-
ever seems to feel the lack of comida.
context, we need to be fully aware that
How can I describe to you an experi- this context cannot be defined by the
ence about which you have not even a 'local color' of the restaurant, the quality
word to name it, and perhaps no element ofthe food itself, or the genius ofthe cook.
in your daily living to relate to it? When The context is necessarilythe social con-
I mentioned the tasty grasshoppers of text, the whole human world which
San Andres, I was not trying to compare comida embeds, the very heart and soul
them with an American steak, reducing of comida.
them, like an expert, to the number of If you ever go to the Republica
proteins they have, or suggesting to try Dominicana, please try to visit Monte
them in an exotic delicatessen. I cannot Bonito, a beautiful small town in the
but remember how much we laughed northwestern part of the country. My
when a man of the Sonora desert came to friendErikDuusdiscovereditforme. He
town, after a long walk, and was offered is a Norwegian anthropologist who lived
chicken soup with a sauce that we re- there for years. He was fascinated by a
jected before because it was very thick. widespread women's practice called
impostura, studied many ofits forms and
wrote a very interesting but still unpub-
lished essay on the matter.
He never attempted to define
impostura. It has symbolic meaning and
is, at the same time,
an informal contractual relationship,
where the partners make an implicit
promise to each other to exchangepart of
their mealwith each other. Thewoman 's
ability to seal such a partnership with
anotherwoman, without the interference
of the males, seems to depend on how
consistently activities and responsibili-
ties are kept separate. Locally, the re-
sponsibility of the man is to provide for
fresh food and the responsibility of the
woman is to prepare the meals. Many
women would go as far as saying that
whatgoes on in the kitchen is none ofher
husband's business, as long as he is
served his meals at the table. However,
there is no absolute division between
men's work and women's work when it
comes to direct tasks. Men can com-
monly be observed peeling manjok and
preparing meals and women can be seen
carrying the machete to thefields,to take
part in the agricultural tasks. The main
characteristic of the relations between
the sexes within and outside the house-
hold seems to be that men behave and
relate to other men in their attempts to
comply with their responsibilities, and
that women relate to other women to
solve theirs. Said differently, men and
women rely on different networks of so-
cial relations. These networks are only
partly segregated. Just as men support
each other with labor and often with raw
food, the majority of the women help
each other with cooked foodor prepared
meals on a regular basis. Some women
might have developed this to the point
where they give each other some part of
everything they prepare, from coffee in
the morning and throughout the three
daily meals. However, itismost common
to pass only the comida, a meal that
ideally should consist of rice with cooked
beans or peas and, preferably, a small
piece of meat (Duns, 1982).
But my friend soon discovered that
impostura is a matter of complex inter-
pretations and acts and gestures and that
it dives into the creation of meanings and ity is partly a question of economic posi-
symbols in social interaction. With his tion; it can express the social identifica-
anthropological training, he collected a tion of groups of people as poor. "But it
longand wide variety ofexpressions used is also related to the female world of
by women to talk about impostura. Let responsibilityandsolidarity. Asmothers
me quote three of his examples: and women who are responsiblefor bring-
1) To me, impostura means ing up the children, they emphasize col-
lectivity and mutual help to secure this."
affection...For example, you and I, we
have affection for each other. You send (Duus, 1982: p. 19).
me your comida and I will
sendyoumine. But in this no
one is looking for any
advantage...only affection.
Because, perhaps you will
send me your comida now,
before mine is ready, and 1
will eat it and take away my
hunger, you see? But per-
haps there will be days when
I can send my comida also to
you, when you are hungry.
Thisiswhatwe are searching
for.
2) Impostura means
togetherness and thatwe treat
each other good in the
neighborhood... Impostura is
having good friends and be-
ing considerate each day as
poor people.
3) Impostura we use
here like perhaps one day I
do not have anything to give
my children, and then one
impostura arrives, and I will
be able to fill them...that is
impostura. The impostura is
something we got used to as
friends and neighbors, you
see?...that'showitis—that if
there are neighbors, we like
to believe that if we have
impostura we shall treat each
other better (Duus 1982: p.
16).
Erik Duus elaborates on
these expressions very beau-
tifully. He perceives the three
main issues about impostura
in them. Giving away food,
he thinks, is understood be-
yond the act itself, to express
social sentiments of unity,
consideration, togetherness
and kindness. Such solidar-
from The flam's Horn
 Duus also observed that there are many then, when Juana sends me her partiam tion. On the other hand, one must under-
acts similar to impostura: gifts offood are already satisfied. When you arrive, lean stand that the production of rice, plan-
made on many different occasions, in therefore say: look, mister, you have thistains, manjok, sweetpotatoes, and other
marriages, births, etc. " Impostura has a little meal. God gives to me and to roots belong intrinsically to their way of
reserved meaning where itbecomes iden- everybody. (Duus 1982: i). life. These products are virtual symbols
tified as being different from these other of self-reliance and autonomy; they are
The whole social context of Monte
quite similar acts." Inthewholerangeof products that greatly 'liberate' time for
Bonito supports these attitudes:
uses and meaningsofthe word, impostura other purposes and play an important
may reflect an act as abstract as a 'cus- Agricultural activities are the back- part in the local exchange system. With
tom1 or the very particular piece of meal bone of the village and the community manjok in the ground the men have com-
prepared It is thus very difficult to make economy.. .Commuting by foot or donkey plied with one of the basic household
adistinctionbetweenimparfuraand those is a daily affair... The major crop orienta- responsibilities and are 'free 'to partici-
other acts that look so similar. However, tion in the peasant agriculture is that of pate in social and public life in a 'proper'
a kind of uneven reciprocity, which can- rice, manjok, plantains, sweet potato andway. (Duus 1982: p. 13).
not be quantified and whose basic rules otherrootsfordirectconsumption, while
are not evident or stable in time and peanuts, peas and beans are often culti- I am telling this story to talk about
space, seems to be a built-in component vated as cash crops. This does not mean scarcity. Foodis a word immersed in the
of impostura. Duus illustrates this point that the peasants of the area make a clear economic world, the world of scarcity.
through a short conversation with a distinction between cash andsubsistence Comida alludes to a normal practice in a
woman: farming. It is quite common to retain a world where 'scarcity,' in the econo-
rather large proportion of the beans and mists' construction of social reality, can-
A. I find that if I give you today, peas for personal consumption in the not appear, and which frequently has
tomorrow, the day after and so on for-
period of the harvest. On the other hand, mechanisms to prevent it from appear-
ever, and you do notgive me becauseyou
it isjully accepted for one to sell parts of ing. Thescarcitylamtalkingaboutisthe
cannot affort it...no, that has nothing to
the rice, manjok and other roots in the one whose meaning was clarified by Ivan
do with impostura. Illich ten years ago. Illich notes that
market. (Duus 1982: p. 9).
Q. But what if I give to you a big 'scarcity' defines thefield in which the
plate every day and you only give me laws of economics relate I) subjects (pos-
back one small one, is that impostura? sessive, invidious, genderless individu-
A. Yes...ohyes, that is impostura als—personal and corporate); 2) institu-
Because you give me a lot because you tions (which symbolically foster mime-
have a lot, andI will give youjust a little, "The idea is that I sis), and 3) commodities, within 4) an
because I have just a little (Duus 1982: live sharing... that is environment in which the commons have
p.19). how we poor people been transformed into resources private
live." or public. Thus used, scarcityshould not
Duus continues for a hundred pages
be confused with i) rare birds ofinterest
carefully examining the world of
to some ornithologist; ii) a meager or
impostura in many ofits highly complex
niggardly diet on which camel drivers
nuances. Icannotbringtoyouhereallthe
have lived forcenturiesin the desert; Hi)
richness of his stories. Before elaborat-
a deficient diet, as diagnosed by a social
ing on them, allow me to present one
worker who visits a family; iv) the last
more description of impostura: Duus also observed that: reserves of wheat in a typical eleventh-
Look, when God gives me one pound the present emphasis on subsistence century French village—in which case
of rice and there won't be enough to cropping and production for domestic custom or violence would assure that all
portion it out with a ladle, I will take one consumption must rely on a combination get some, however small, amount.
of the tin spoons, one of the smaller of both cultural and economic perspec-
spoons, andgive everybody a little. The tives. On the one hand, one can detect a In this text, Illich pertinently adds that
idea is thatI live sharing... That is how we certain reluctance to seek more market- the fading of gender and the growing
poor people live. (I would say) Oh God, orientedagriculturalengagements. Pea- intensityandvariety of scarcitiesaretwo
how hungry I am. Then immediately sides ofthe same process ofWestemiza-
nuts, the most secure crop, give only
people will arrive, and the woman over tion. (Illich 1982: p. 19).
marginal economic benefits in terms of
there will cook herpound ofriceand she We can see, in Monte Bonito, that
labor input. The production of peas and
will send me a little, perhaps she over
beans is very risky, with little prediction impostura does not relate 'possessive,
there will also send me a little, that's two 1
andmystomach will startgetting full, but of success or failure. These peasant invidious subjects but affectionate
people, linked in solidarity, connected
then the woman over there will also send households can therefore not be charac-
me a little, thenlamgettingfilledup, and terizedashavingcompletely 'withdrawn' not through institutions, but through per-
from a more market-oriented produc- sonal bonds, rooted in a long tradition, in
8
a world where commodities play a mar-
ginal role and the environment is largely
occupied by the commons.
But to bring here this story about
impostura in Monte Bonito is just a pre-
texttoteUmy real story: the feet that I
have been finding, during the last ten
years, many forms and shapes of
impostura, ofcomida, in the very heart of
Mexico City. In Monte Bonito you can
see impostura as the natural continuation
of a long-established tradition and it can
be treated as a reminiscence, what has
survivedfromthe past, an interesting but
marginal practice in rural, 'primitive'
towns. In Mexico City, you need to deal
with the question of how and why these
kinds ofpractices are becoming standard
once again. You need to ask ifthe present
flourishing ofsuch practices in one ofthe
most modern and populated cities of the
Anne S. Walker, used by permission of the International Women's Tribune Centre
world, in that gigantic overurbanized
settlement, are also reminiscences, a step
back, a form of underdevelopment, or of their houses. The houses served as me to go to America and Europe to cam-
strictly postmodern practices. workshops during the day and as homes paign in their name. Otherfriendsorga-
at night. Patios were common spaces nized mytrip through 11 countries and got
Giving Up Scarcity with multiple purposes Step by step, the for me appointments with key officials in
Tepitans invaded the streets, transform- the governments, the foundations and the
Tepito isaAamo1 indowntownMexico ing them into places for workshops, media. Everybody hosting me assumed
City: 72 blocks occupied by 120,000 trade, and recreational activities. All of that I was coming to beg for funds. They
inhabitants. In 1945 it was one of the Tepito was transformed into a creative were ready to open their pockets, replen-
worst places to live in Mexico. Its houses and recreative space. The trade of used ished by the horrifying pictures of the
were really ugh/; they were infeetrooms, clothes flourished next to that of new earthquake and the calls to help the vic-
not houses, of 13 to 25 square meters, clothes produced in Tepito. Shoe repair- tims. It was a great surprise to them to
each one built around dusty yards, with- men prospered next to workshops to discover that the purpose of my trip was to
out sanitation facilities and made ofvery produce new shoes. Tepitans remade, stop the flow of funds. Since it was
poor materials. Ten, twenty, orfiftyof remodeled and transformed a thousand impossible to convince them with reason-
these 'houses' constituted a vecinidad. mechanicalandelectricalgadgets thrown ing, I used a standard story in my presen-
Only delinquents of every kind lived away by theirrichor middle class own- tation ofthe argument. It is the following.
there, giving the place additional handi- ers. The quality of objects reformulated
caps. by them is now famous. Twenty-four hours afterthe earthquake,
the FAO representative in Mexico re-
After World War II, the government With the earthquake in 1985, 40 ceived a call from Rome: "You have a
of the city froze the rent of low-cost percent of their weak houses collapsed. million dollars to help the victims. You
housing. Thepeopledidnotperceivethis A whole struggle started. Lawyers and must expend the funds in the next three
measure as temporary, because they had developers saw this as their opportunity months." The representative immedi-
struggled for it. As a result, the arrange- to get rid of the Tepitans, while the ately created a commission, with French,
ment existed for many years, despite Tepitans fought to stay there and rebuild German and Chilean experts, who hap-
countlessattempts by lawyers, politicians, their houses. An obscene trade ofchari- pened to have a ready-made aid project, to
and developers to eliminate it. ties developed soon, with churches, po- establish in Tepito a hundred popular
Those living in Tepito thus enjoyed a litical parties and NGOs attempting to restaurants, selling to the victims subsi-
kind of economic privilege compelling capture a portion ofthe victims to 'help' dized food and using the opportunity to
them to remain. The very low quality of them. Since our group had been active educate the Tepitans on how to consume
their houses put the rent among the cheap- in the area for ten years before the a balanced diet. The Tepitans were pro-
est in the city. So the Tepitans conquered earthquake, we were fully involved in foundly offended, angry—and concerned.
spaces with ingenuity. They added sec- the struggle. A month after the whole First they said, "thirty years ago we used
ondfloorsby building one in the interior thing started, my friends ofTepito asked to eat escamocha, leftovers from friendly
restaurants, given forfreeto poor people.
We cooked everything in enormous pots
in the streets and shared thefinalproduct,
escamocha. We don't want industrial
escamocha now," they added, "we eat
very well, everything we want, in our own
way, thanks to our organization and to
the cultural space we have created." And
they are right. You can find in Tepito
every kind of comida, in the most diverse
styles. In the streets, you can see thou-
sands ofchildren who look dirty, because
they are playing and fooling around and
working all the time, but they also look
healthy and well; no social worker will
ever find what they call malnutrition.
But the Tepitans were especially con-
cerned with the FAO project, because a
third of them make a living in producing
and selling comida. Many of those dedi-
cated to such activity could be ruined by
the competence of subsidized, industrial
food. Like all development aid, this aid
project could be counterproductive.
Tepitans wanted to oppose the 'food aid'
in the same vein they previously opposed
the development of their spaces.
My trip itself was extremely counter-
productive. It was a great success in the
media. My message was so peculiar, at
the time thecampaignto movethe pocket
of everyone was at its peak, that newspa-
pers put me on the front page. Every
official listened to me with concerned
interest. But instead of following my
argument, they asked all their represen-
tatives in Mexico to talk with me, assum-
ing that I was the ideal person to help
them to expend their money. But that is
another story, illustrating the kind of
prejudices and inertia that blind the eyes
of those making decisions in our world
food system. The story that I want to
highlight here is that the event allowed
me to enter more deeply in the world of
comida in Tepito. Those establishments
producing and selling comida were not
only another line of business or an in-
come-generating activity ofthe Tepitans.
They were but the top layer of a far from
frozen, extended web of very complex
activities. Something tikeimpostora was
there, but it was a thousand times more
complex than that in Monte Bonito. My
friend Erik Duus would, like others, find
it nearly impossible to capture the com-
plexities of Tepitan impostora.
Many Tepitans, for example, main- But that is only a clue to what I discov-
tain close connections with the rural ered. Similar patterns are being fol-
communitiesfromwhich a large propor- lowed, created, and recreated in all the
tion ofthemfirst emigrated, and use these popular barrios of the city. And now,
connections to operate the channels for a with the blessing of the so-called 'crisis,'
constantflowofpeople and goods in both the world has turned upside down. The
'marginals' and lower middle-class em-
ployees complementing their income and
enriching their lives through comida are
now sharing the 10,000 tricks for living
Comida alludes to a that the 'poor' master so well with the
normal practice in a members ofthe middle- or upper middle-
world where scar- class, who were previously role models
forthe 'poor' but who have lost part or all
city, in the econo-
of what they considered the 'privileges'
mists' construction of of development While the ex-engineer
social reality, cannot or ex-salesman is now driving a taxi, his
appear. wife is cooking some pastries and send-
ing her college children to sell them,
perhaps in one of the street markets now
booming in Mexico City, next to the
ultramodern malls that still disseminate
directions. This 'trade' has been a key the illusions of development. After a
element for the regeneration of the rural period of frustration, humiliation and
communities and has kept alive a very rage, the ex-middle classes are rediscov-
active web for mutual help and solidarity. ering a new kind offreedom,where their
It is not a mere 'commercial operation,1 talents and skills can be fully applied and
lookingforprofitortryingtobenefitfrom some solidarity and personal bonds can
a kind of'comparative advantage.' It is be regenerated.
in fact a system to modulate migration, in
And so I started to understand why we
both directions, to host people in both
have not killed each other in that mon-
extremes of the web and to get proper
strous settlement of 16 million inhabit-
support for all the members ofthis cluster
ants, in the middle ofwhat the experts call
of communities occupying multiple
the worst economic crisis of the century
spaces, in both rural and urban areas.
in Mexico. It is not an accident. It is
Inside Tepito, the exchanges are made perhaps defining some extended phe-
in the most fantastic, complex, and effi- nomena and trends, if we believe two
cient forms. Inthevec/mdade.yakindof great surprises that the last census in
impostora, comprising a lot more things Mexico, in 1990, brought to the experts'
than comida, frequently prevails. Out of desks.
the vecinidades there are literally hun-
First, the population of Mexico City:
dreds of associations—by street, by line
where the experts were predicting 20
of activity, by trade, or by skill. Since
million, they found 'only' 16. They said
many families are most of the time in the
street fortheirtradeorwork, they have no that this was because of previous mis-
time for cooking at home. They have takes in the estimates or the very poor
therefore created special arrangements quality of the 1980 census. Many of us
with 'establishments' where friends or suspect that, in addition to serious mis-
relatives are producing and selling calculations in previous population pro-
comida, and these people in turn have jections, we had a net emigration. The
1
other arrangements with the workshops, 1980s, the 'lost decade of development,
the market, and most Tepitans. If we the so-called crisis, assisted by the earth-
trace in Tepito all the aspects and shapes quakeof 1985, stimulated so many people
of comida, we may find that it embraces to come backto the communities they had
perhaps the whole range ofhuman activi- earlier abandoned. Many more, like
ties—from rituals and prayers to the myself, decided to escape from foolish-
milpa to dancing or to electronic gadgets. ness.
10
 And this brings us to the second sur-
prise. Oaxaca is a province of three
million in the south of Mexico; 70 per-
cent of them are Indians. They were
dyingduringthedevelopmentera. Thanks
to the 'Mexican miracle," when we had
an annual rate ofeconomic growth of six
percent, one ofthe richest natural areas of
the world started to look like a moon
landscape. In Mexico City, in the north-
west of our country or in Los Angeles,
whole new colonies ofMixtecs, Zapotecs
or Mixes started to appear. For 30 years
we had no demographic growth in
Oaxaca. People in large numbers were
abandoning their land, their sacred places,
their communities. But then we had the
blessing of the crisis. Development
stopped. Developers were weakened if
not killed. The communities came back
to life and with patience, effort and inge-
nuity, people started to regenerate their
traditional spaces. The 1990 census reg-
istered the phenomenon: we had an in-
crease in population.
I strongly believe that we will have
more of these 'surprises' in the coming
years, despite the trade treaty and the
recent signs ofimprovement in economic
growth. And I am putting the best of my
hopes for my people in such perspectives.
But I cannot imagine how this movement
will be so quick and extended as to
Laura B. DeLind
dismantle our present cities. Or, even
more, to do it without destroying our rural
culture: I cannotsee how we can smoothly
host 60 million destructive urbanites in
our small rural towns. The point is that
if we cannot discover or invent a sustain-
able alternative for our urban settlements,
through feasible changes, we will be
inviting a political and natural disaster.
Perhaps oururban/m/xwtora, the way we
handle comida among the social majori-
ties in our cities, is not as stable, culturally
rich, and beautiful as it is in the rural
communities; it cannot prevent scarcity
from appearing here and there and hun-
gerfrequentlyemerges. But it also has
the seeds for other radical changes of a
postmodern nature, which seem promis-
ing and enduring.
Regenerating the Art of
Living and Dying
Re-embedding food in agri-culture is
not about crops, stewardship ofthe land
or organic agriculture, even though all of
that is included in the endeavor. It goes
beyond the movement for a regenerative
agricultureaftertheGreenRevolution. It
is about the way we live. And again, it is
not about healthy food or unproved con-
sumption patterns, for ecological or eco-
nomic reasons. It is about people, about
11
recovering a sense of community, about
creating new commons—in every urban
or rural settlement.
I am talking about a postmodern
ethos—that is, about men and women
who have decided to liberate themselves
from the oppression ofeconomic society.
This has nothing to do with suppressing
money or stopping trade. What moder-
nity did, the political design establishing
modern societies, implied excising from
society and culture an autonomous sphere,
the economic sphere, and installing it at
the center of politics and ethics. That
brutal and violent transformation, first
completed in Europe, was always associ-
ated with colonial domination in the rest
of the world. Postmodernity will not
really exist unless we succeed in recreat-
ing our commons, re-embedding the
economy, to use the Polanyi expression,
into society and culture, thus subordinat-
ing it again to politics and ethics and
marginalizing it, putting it at the mar-
gin—which is, precisely, what the
'marginals' are doing.
Butwhatisitwe are marginalizing? It
is not creating or exchanging material
things, or even money. It is scarcity, a
principle, a logic. It is not rarity, shortage
restriction, want insufficiency, even fru-
gality. The sudden shortage offreshair
during a fire is not scarcity of air in the
economic sense. Neither is the self-
imposedfrugalityof a monk, the insuffi-
ciency of stamina in a boxer, the rarity of
a flower, or the last reserves of wheat
mentioned by the pharaoh in what is the
first known historical reference to hun-
ger.
The 'law of scarcity1 was construed by
economists to denote the technical as-
sumption that man's wants are great, not
to say infinite, whereas his means are
limited though improvable. The assump-
tion implies choices about the allocation
of means (resources). This'fact'defines
the "economic problem1 par excellence,
whose 'solution' is proposed by econo-
mists through the market or the plan, the
state.
We are giving up that assumptioa
Just that. An assumption. A belief, a
statement through which modern people
continue oppressing themselves and oth-
ers. Marshall SahlinsandPierreClastres,
among others, have given detailed and
well-documented accounts of cultures in
which non-economic assumptions gov-
ern the lives of the people, who reject the
assumption of scarcity whenever it ap-
pears among them. It is my contention
that this is not something in the past,
something to remember, but a contempo-
rary, daily practice among the social
majorities of the world, who see it as the
very condition for their survival. They
are suffering, ofcourse, all the damaging
consequences of economic foolishness.
They are not living in some fantasy world
outside the planet. Their world is still
ruled by economic assumptions. They
are fully immersed in the economic world,
and they need to struggle, day after day,
with the economic mind, with the eco-
nomic invasion oftheir lives—frequently
supported by bulldozers and the police,
always at the service ofdevelopment with
the thousand and one personifications of urging comida I am not advocating that
the homo economicus surrounding and women squat around the fireplace every-
frequently attacking them. But they can where in the world. Com/rfacannotbere-
find support in their traditions, as they moved, dis-placed, or re-placed.
continue to challenge economic assump-
tions both in theory and practice.
During the last years, I have been
followingwithfascinanonthe movement
for Community Supported Agriculture. I
have been told that there are now as many
as 5,000 experiments of CS As operating
successfully in America. They have cou-
rageously constructed their own networks
for the exchange of experiences. They
also now have their newsletters, their
associations and their national confer-
ences. I cannot but admire the extraordi-
nary dedication and commitment ofthese
new, wise farmers, recovering old agri-
cultural practices, abandoning the use of
chemicals or machines or even tillage,
and finding alternative markets for what
they produce in the community support-
ing them. Many of them are putting in
practice the dreams of the late Robert
Rodale for a regenerative agriculture. Lappe, through mere redistribution of
I suspect, however, that the basic force
behind too many of them is just another
form of consumerism, organized around
some economic principles. ' Smart' con-
sumers are finding another source of
healthy, fresh, organic food; 'smart' pro-
ducers arefindingan alternative market,
to get stability in their income and better
Neither am I saying that comida is a
conditions. I have painfully observed the
bed of roses. I deeply admire the central
weak social echo found by some of themplace Dona Refugio has in San Andres.
when they try to transform their activities
My desirable society also has women at
and proposals into a sociological tool for
the center. But I know very well that
rebuilding community. Brick walls seemmatriarchy can be as oppressive as patri-
to separate these farming partners andarchy. Ifyou ever see that Mexican film,
their neighbors. The personal bonds full of comida, "Like Water for Choco-
created through this trade cannot be ex-
late," you will see all the oppressive
tended to other areas: everybody is too
dimensions of matriarchy. But you will
busy with their own affairs, too absorbed
also see that real men and women can
by their professional endeavors, too com-
always change such modes of oppres-
mitted to the abstract institutions defin-
sion. For in a world of comida, all
ing their lives. I am afraid that the predicaments, good and bad, are on a
movement will be doomed to be absorbedhuman scale. I cannot see how we will
by the system or to keep its present mar-
win over the five giants controlling 85
ginal condition, unless they develop their
percent of the international grain trade,
potential, radically departing from the
except if we seriously renounce eating
conditions allowing them to exist andkilometers, in order to regenerate in our
changing the very nature and orientation
own spaces our own comida. Every
of their endeavor. postmodern group, looking for sustain-
able agriculture and enduring living, has
I hope that it is clear by now that in
to rediscover in their own cultures and
pasts its own ideal of comida. In that
adventure, they may find monotonous
and sad, in fact the very image of depri-
vation, what is now advertised as the very
prototype ofabundance; they may thus be
forced to abandon hopes, tranquilizers
and even social struggles that they per-
haps cherished for a long time. But they
may also rediscover everywhere, even in
Every postmodern Happy Valley, even in this academic
group, looking for desert historically conceived for the most
extreme, irreversible dependency, they
sustainable agricul- may rediscover everywhere many secret,
ture and enduring hidden stocks of a still unknown class of
living, has to redis- comida. Perhaps. Who knows. As long
cover in their own as they are not looking for industrial
cultures and pasts its comida, which isacontradictionin terms.
own ideal of comida. And this is the end of my talk. As you
can see, I was unable to say what I wanted
to say. That is my predicament. I hope
that by now it is also yours.
On the other hand, abundance a la Endnote
food andrightsof access or through land 1
Barrio and vecinidad have no direct
reform, no matter how promising it may
translation. A barrio is more than a neigh-
look for preventing hunger or empower- borhood. Itisacollectionofneighborhoods,
ing the poor, will never bring back the like the developments of a modem city, but
world of enoughness, the richness of it is not a development. It is more in the
comida, nor will it be able to prevent the tradition of the French quarter, in which
present lacks. the common traits denning the place and
12